West Coast Racing’s Gianni Morbidelli once again headed the time sheets in second practice for Rounds seven and eight at the Salzburgring completing the 2.3 mile circuit four tenths of a lap quicker than in FP1, ahead by just one tenth of Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Sergey Afanasyev in his SEAT.
Afanayev’s teammate and Championship Leader Pepe Oriola was close behind in fifth making it a strong morning for the Craft-Bamboo racing team with James Nash finishing the session seventh quickest.
After a disappointing FP1, B3 Racing’s Dušan Borković was back on the pace in fourth place with a lap of just over three tenths of a second slower, to reinforce the pace that the SEAT propelled drivers have this weekend.
Jordi Oriola, racing for Target Competition this year in a Honda Civic put in his best time to place third in the standings and become one of only three drivers to put in a lap time under one minute twenty six seconds.
The biggest improvement of the session was from Mat O’Homola who, having finished FP1 only 13th, improved his lap times significantly to finish the session seventh ahead of James Nash and just behind Mikhail Grachev driving impressively in his Honda Civic.
Attila Tassi excelled, improving his time by eight tenths of a second to finish the session ninth in his SEAT ahead of Harald Proczyk who, while lowing his time, has slipped to the bottom half of the top ten.
It was a difficult session for both the VW Golf TCRs and the returning Alfa Romeo Giulettas, as both struggled to find form and reliability. VW’s Jean-Karl Vernay was the fastest of this group but was a full second off the fastest time set my Morbidelli while his team-mate Davit Kajaia.
The Alfa Romeo’s struggled with reliability, as Petr Fulín pitted midway through the session with a broken front splitter while setting steady lap times while Michela Cerruti was lumbered with a throttle problem that left her four seconds off the pace at the end of the session.
With just half a second covering the top nine drivers qualifying will be close when it starts 14:00GMT.
Session results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 10 | Gianni MORBIDELLI |  |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 15 | 1:26.637 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 77 | Sergey AFANASYEV |  |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León TCR | 15 | 1:26.744 | 0.107 |
| 3 | 33 | Jordi ORIOLA |  |
Target Competition | Honda Civic TCR | 15 | 1:26.817 | 0.180 |
| 4 | 62 | Dušan BORKOVIĆ |  |
B3 Racing Team Hungary | SEAT León TCR | 16 | 1:27.024 | 0.387 |
| 5 | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA | |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León TCR | 17 | 1:27.025 | 0.388 |
| 6 | 8 | Mikhail GRACHEV | |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 18 | 1:27.031 | 0.394 |
| 7 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA |  |
B3 Racing Team Hungary | SEAT León TCR | 14 | 1:27.033 | 0.396 |
| 8 | 54 | James NASH |  |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León TCR | 16 | 1:27.112 | 0.475 |
| 9 | 9 | Attila TASSI |  |
B3 Racing Team Hungary | SEAT León TCR | 17 | 1:27.180 | 0.543 |
| 10 | 43 | Harald PROCZYK |  |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 17 | 1:27.489 | 0.852 |
| 11 | 2 | Jean-Karl VERNAY |  |
Leopard Racing | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 18 | 1:27.627 | 0.990 |
| 12 | 7 | Davit KAJAIA |  |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 17 | 1:27.808 | 1.171 |
| 13 | 45 | Florian JANITS | |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 17 | 1:28.211 | 1.574 |
| 14 | 1 | Stefano COMINI |  |
Leopard Racing | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 15 | 1:28.298 | 1.661 |
| 15 | 22 | Petr FULÍN |  |
Mulsanne Racing | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 7 | 1:28.711 | 2.074 |
| 16 | 88 | Michela CERRUTI | |
Mulsanne Racing | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 7 | 1:32.371 | 5.734 |